Hard-core fans rejoice as No Doubt rocks mightily in Irvine

It's been incredibly too long since No Doubt has played in Orange County. Thousands of hard-core fans that lined up outside of Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in Irvine on Friday night had waited five long years for an official No Doubt tour –- and they were buzzing with excitement.

Various No Doubt songs (and one misplaced Backstreet Boys track) could be heard blasting from car stereos throughout the parking lot. A merchandise tent smartly placed just outside the box office stayed swarmed by fans, loads of swag snatched up by girls everywhere sporting Gwen Stefani's Tragic Kingdom look of track pants and cutoff white wife-beaters to the more fashionista/ runway style of her solo days. Clearly these fans were hungry for this return.

Friday night marked the first of four sold-out shows at the venue, and it played big to the hometown crowd, the group not having lost any steam since the tour began in late May. Stefani along with bassist Tony Kanal, guitarist Tom Dumont, drummer Adrian Young and horns and keys men Stephen Bradley and Gabriel McNair emerged comfortably and happy and playful before the ecstatic audience.

I also caught the July 22 show at Gibson Amphitheatre, the first of three dates in Los Angeles, but this gig had a very different feel. Unlike at Gibson, Stefani shared personal asides, letting the audience know that Dumont used to flip burgers years ago at Verizon, when it was called Irvine Meadows. Band introductions were also personalized, as she threw in the names of high schools and colleges each member attended. Stefani sometimes laughed as she announced the various cities they once called home: “All the way from Anaheim … Irvine … Cypress.”

And she screamed “ORANGE COUNTY!” so many times between songs, I ran out of fingers and had to start counting on my toes to keep track. I think we all knew where we were –- yet every time she addressed the crowd that way, the place went nuts.

Stefani also took time out to read aloud some of the colorful signs fans held up in the pit: “I wanna do push-ups with you” … “Marry me” … “Can I take a pic with you?” She took one fan up on his offer for a photo –- and he was so nervously excited, he couldn't get his camera to work. After about a minute of fiddling with the machine, Stefani and the fan figured it out; he literally leapt with joy when he turned it around to view the photo.

Another sign caught her eye before the band went into “Different People,” a piece of paper that read one fan had flown all the way from Japan just to see this show. Stefani playfully asked to see a passport –- and he instantly coughed it up. “That's incredible, unbelievable,” she said as she called him up on stage and had Dumont take a snapshot of the excited fan with her and Kanal.

This was also probably the loudest show I've ever heard at Verizon –- and I saw Iron Maiden here last year. It's as if the county said, “Eh, it's No Doubt. Let 'em rip.” My ears are still ringing. Between the intense volume (which greatly highlighted Young's talent as a drummer) and the shrieking of fans between songs, anyone who sat in the orchestra or loge is probably deaf now.

But it was worth it to hear No Doubt blast flawlessly through its many hits -– to revel in the opening rush of “Spiderwebs” or ride along as they calmed the pace of the hyper track “Excuse Me Mr.,” then got revved up again for “Ex-Girlfriend,” during which Stefani didn't drop any f-bombs this time, unlike at Gibson. Slower tracks “Don't Speak,” “A Simple Kind of Life” and “Running” had fans swaying and roaring along. (Read more about the set in our review of the band's stop May 22 at Cricket Wireless Amphitheatre in Chula Vista.)

This is when Stefani is at her best. These songs have the unique ability to take you back to that place where you actually feel your heart breaking all over again. Many of us have experienced our own Gwen-Tony breakup, so we can relate.

For more than one generation of hurt or yearning women Stefani's best moments have given voice to raw emotions they haven't always been able to express. She's not afraid to bring the crazy out (as she screams “I'm jealous! I'm so jealous” in “Ex- Girlfriend”); she's capable of packing her lyrics with thoughts every woman has had at one point, yet would never dare share with a man. They're like tear- and blood-soaked pages ripped from her diary -– something unique to No Doubt's records and noticeably absent from her solo efforts.

That said, after five years of dormancy –- eight if you consider that the band hasn't released a new album since Rock Steady in 2001 -– this set does seem a little too routine. And yet, although it's easy to feel bitterly cheated that the only new material they're offering is a cover of Adam and the Ants' “Stand and Deliver” (which this night found all of the members of opening acts the Sounds and Paramore joining in), that didn't ruin my good time. Or anyone else's, given the insane response.

Let's hope this tour does get the band's creative juices flowing, so we can hope for a new album and yet another tour in … 2010? Hopefully that's not just wishful thinking.

Paramore and the Sounds have been out on the road with No Doubt since the tour started. The former, an emo-pop group with a big rock sound, carried well throughout the amphitheater; it often seemed that there were just as many Paramore fans as No Doubt crazies in attendance (the “Twilight” shirts kind of gave that away).

“This entire summer has been so surreal … this is the last full weekend of the tour and we want to go out with a bang,” vocalist Hayley Williams announced. I caught Paramore a couple years ago at the Grove of Anaheim and the group has certainly gained some confidence since then. Perhaps Williams and her male counterparts have taken some notes from their headlining mentors.

She runs, jumps and crawls all over the stage without missing a beat, and had girls (and a few boys) screaming “We love Hayley!” at the top of their lungs between each track. Williams shared that the group will have a new record out next month, schooling the crowd (with the promise of a quiz afterward) that they need to remember three things: Paramore; new record, Brand New Eyes; Sept. 29. The group played two songs from that coming disc, “Ignorance” and “Where the Lines Overlap” -– yet hard-core fans already seemed to know all of the lyrics to both.

The Sounds also delivered a stellar performance. As the sun set behind the amphitheater the Swedish pop-rock group with a heavy emphasis on synthesizer danced and rocked out on stage. Vocalist Maja Ivarsson came out sporting windblown Farrah Fawcett hair and black short-shorts that showed off her long, lean, tan legs –- which had the boys drooling. Of course the guys in the group dressed up, too –- in tight-tight pants and sweat headbands.

The group's funky rock blend had fans dancing in their seats, with songs off of its June release Crossing the Rubicon going over well. The best of those tracks is the latest single, “No One Sleeps When I'm Awake,” which, Ivarsson shared, is about the group's longtime dream to someday tour the world. Once they finish doing so with No Doubt, the Sounds will return in fall on their own headlining tour.

No Doubt plays again tonight, Sunday and Tuesday (Katy Perry replaces Paramore on the last date). A limited amount of tickets remain, $25-$90. Note: The pictures, by the Associated Press, are from a May 31 show in Texas. The Register was not permitted to photograph Friday's concert.

No Doubt: Spiderwebs / Hella Good / Underneath It All / Excuse Me Mr. / Ex-Girlfriend / End It on This / A Simple Kind of Life / Bathwater / New/ Hey Baby / Running / Different People / Don't Speak / It's My Life / Just a Girl

Encore: Rock Steady / Stand and Deliver / Sunday Morning

Paramore: Misery Business/ For a Pessimist, I'm Pretty Optimistic/ Pressure/ Ignorance/ Crushcrushcrush/ When it Rains/ Where the Lines Overlap/ That's What You Get/ Let the Flames Begin/ Decode

The Sounds: Tony the Beat/ Dorchester Hotel/ 4 Songs & a Fight/ Beatbox/ No One Sleeps When I'm Awake/ Hope You're Happy Now

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